Skyline High School opening culminates 10 years of efforts to deal with overcrowding

Leisa Thompson | The Ann Arbor NewsSkyline High School freshman Tim Huppenbauer, right, helps his mom, Ellen, while registering for the high school's Parent Teacher Student Organization Wednesday. In the background, freshman Betsy Mansfield gives instructions to Yolanda Wilson and her son, Marcus, on registering for the PTSO.

When the students who stood in line to register last week at Skyline High School were in kindergarten, Ann Arbor school officials launched a committee to look at ways to relieve overcrowding at the district's two large high schools.

When those students were in fourth grade, the district unsuccessfully asked voters for the money to expand the existing high schools.

When the students were entering middle school, voters and the school board decided to build a new school.

And now that they're freshman, they're about to become the first class of students in the sparkling new facility at M-14 and Maple Road.

In between the first committee meeting and the first class were 10 years of controversy and much debate as the school district's elected officials, administrators and community members tried to figure out how to battle overcrowding at Pioneer and Huron high schools, each several hundred students over capacity.

"I think it's a long time," said district spokeswoman Liz Margolis, who served for a short time as a citizen on the first committee before joining the district as an employee. "It's sort of representative of Ann Arbor. You talk it out, you study it to death."

Trying to make a decision

While the topic of overcrowding at Pioneer and Huron had been on people's minds for some time, the first formal attempts to address it started in 1998 with the formation of the High School Futures 2000 committee. That group, which at points included about 50 people, was charged with looking at both short-term and long-term solutions.

"The committee spent that year developing all kinds of scenarios," said Jane Landefeld, the district's director of research services and child accounting. "There was all kinds of research done and costing out of options.

"For a while we were meeting twice a week."

In December of 1999, the committee offered up six options, including building a new comprehensive high school, building one or two ninth-grade-only buildings, converting a middle school into a high school or renovating Huron and Pioneer. The report mentioned district-owned land on Maple Road near M-14 as a possible site for construction.

Over the next several years, the school board and administration bounced back and forth among options. There also was a change in superintendents during that time, with interim Superintendent David Flowers leaving and Rossi Ray-Taylor coming in.

"Of course, in hindsight it was a long time (for any decision to be reached)," said former school board member Brad Orr. "In Ann Arbor, things get done slowly.

"You don't know what to do, so you thrash about a bit looking for answers."

In 2001, Ray-Taylor told the school board the district couldn't afford to operate a new high school.

Then, the focus shifted to adding onto Huron and Pioneer.

"It was grueling," said former school board member Kathy Griswold, who was very active in several citizen groups pushing for the construction of a new high school. "There really was no leadership. The reason I think the community was hesitant was because we (the district) tend to implement poorly."

During Ray-Taylor's tenure, the school board was deeply divided.
"I think the contention was a distraction," said current school board President Karen Cross. "What you really need is consensus of the board and the administration."

Finally, in 2002, the district put a bond request on the ballot, asking voters for more than $30 million to add on to and renovate Pioneer and Huron.

Voters turned that down, thanks in part to a vocal opposition.

"A third of the people wanted a new high school, a third of the people wanted to renovate and a third of the people didn't want to do anything," Landefeld said.

After that vote, discussion about high school overcrowding became overshadowed by controversy over Ray-Taylor, who eventually was forced out.

Her successor, George Fornero, spent the first several months of his career trying to calm the waters.

Griswold agreed. "If Rossi had not been replaced, it might have been done earlier," she said.

In January of 2004, Fornero was ready to address the question of overcrowding.

Passing the bond

Fornero's plan? Present voters with a bond that would not only pay for the construction of a new high school, but also renovate every other buildings in the district, add technology, buy new buses and buy new musical instruments.

"The discussion had always been just about building a new high school," Margolis said. "George looked districtwide. It wasn't just the high school.

"It was a battle. There was a lot of work that was done in a short time."

Why was this bond passed?

Some say it was because everyone and every school got something.
Others think it had more to do with the appeal of a third high school.

"Both options (the renovation of Pioneer and Huron and the building of the new high school) would have certainly addressed the issue of overcrowding," Cross said. "But I think that the option of the new high school was attractive because it offered more opportunities for extracurriculars. ...

"There also were those who believed there is a limit to the number of young people we should educate in any one space."

Building the school

Once voters gave their approval, the controversy over the new high school didn't end.

There were battles over the location of the school, which ended up on district land on Maple Road near M-14. There was a lawsuit over salamanders on the property. There were heated meetings over the attendance boundaries and the name for the new school.

And there were delays in construction that ended up forcing the new school to open one year late.

There were also cost overruns, which pushed the price tag to more than $90 million.

And in the middle of all of that, Fornero resigned, and a new superintendent, Todd Roberts, was brought in.

The future

As students get ready to file into Skyline, questions still surround it.
Orr worries the district can't afford it. "I have been consistent that operating a new high school would be difficult for the district," he said. "I'm not convinced that has changed.

"I don't know if the public ever came to a consensus that a new high school was what was needed. We had a majority of voters in a school election, normally between 5 and 7 percent of voters, decide that was the solution. That can hardly be called a consensus. I hope it works. We'll see if it does, only 10 years from now."

The bond election drew 14.4 percent of eligible voters to the polls, and 61 percent of them voted yes on the proposal.

Griswold, who wanted the school built on the south side of town, also thinks it will take a decade to see results.

"I think that long-term, all high school students will benefit," she said. "It's better than nothing, but not what this community deserves."

District officials are more optimistic. They say the school, despite only starting with freshmen this year, is doing exactly what it was supposed to do to ease overcrowding.

They point to Pioneer, which had 700 freshmen last year, and is projected to have between 400 and 450 this year. Huron is expected to see its freshmen enrollment shrink to about the same level.
"You can already see it," Margolis said. "There's more chances for kids to participate in things.

"I think it's pretty exciting."

For those who were active in the debate, another word also comes to mind.

"Relief," Cross said. "Relief that we got beyond it. Ten years is a long time to discuss a single issue. ... Getting beyond it allows us to not be focused on facilities, but to be focused on the children in the classroom. ...